Frank: 'Respect' Massachusetts results on healthcare

Reaching a compromise between the House and Senate isn't in the cards after the GOP's special election win in Massachusetts, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Tuesday night.

Frank said in a statement following Republican Scott Brown's win in a special election to fill the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D) seat that Democrats should "respect" Brown's election and halt forward movement on healthcare.

"I feel strongly that the Democratic majority in Congress must respect the process and make no effort to bypass the electoral results," Frank said in a statement.

"If Martha Coakley had won, I believe we could have worked out a reasonable compromise between the House and Senate healthcare bills," the senior House Democrat added. "But since Scott Brown has won and the Republicans now have 41 votes in the Senate, that approach is no longer appropriate."

Democrats are mulling how they'll move forward on healthcare now that Senate Republicans have enough votes to sustain a filibuster of that and any other legislative priority.

Frank said that, for now, lawmakers must "rule out" any effort to pass healthcare anyway.

"I am hopeful that some Republican senators will be willing to discuss a revised version of healthcare reform because I do not think that the country would be well-served by the healthcare status quo," Frank said. "But our respect for democratic procedures must rule out any effort to pass a healthcare bill as if the Massachusetts election had not happened."

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